Deals of the day-Mergers and acquisitions

Reuters Staff

5 Min Read

(Adds UniCredit, EDF, Rosneft; Updates Valeant)

Oct 19 (Reuters) - The following bids, mergers, acquisitions and disposals were reported by 2000 GMT on Monday:

** China is set to take a 33.5 percent stake in a 16-billion-pound ($25-billion) nuclear power project being built by French utility EDF at Hinkley Point in southwest England, Les Echos newspaper reported.

** UniCredit, Italy's biggest bank by assets, is considering the sale of retail and small and medium enterprise businesses at its Bank Austria unit, a source close to the matter said.

** Canadian Oil Sands Ltd asked its shareholders on Monday to reject a hostile takeover offer by Suncor Energy Inc , saying it was weak and substantially undervalued the company's ownership in Syncrude.

** Austria's state holding company OBIB, which has stakes in firms including Telekom Austria, Austrian Post and OMV, has not been instructed to sell any shares, its chief said.

** German carmaker Audi will invest 32 billion forints ($117.6 million) in its manufacturing plant in the Western Hungarian city of Gyor, the country's foreign minister was quoted as saying.

** Europe's largest stainless steel company Outokumpu said it would sell a 55 percent stake in Shanghai Krupp Stainless (SKS), Chinese joint venture mill, for 370 million euros ($420.5 million) to reduce debt.

** Norwegian environmental technology firm Goodtech signed a deal to sell most of its Swedish operations to its largest shareholder for up to 365 million Norwegian crowns ($45 million), it reported late on Sunday.

** Tsingtao Brewery Co Ltd said it would buy the equity interest it did not already own in a loss-making brewery joint venture with Japan's Suntory Holdings, hoping to boost efficiency.

** Aster DM Healthcare, a Dubai-based healthcare company, has bought an additional 57 percent stake in a hospital in Riyadh for 900 million dirhams ($245 million), it said on Sunday.

** Saudi Basic Industries Corp (SABIC), one of the world's largest petrochemicals groups, is considering launching joint ventures in China and the United States, its acting chief executive told Reuters on Sunday.

** French utility EDF hoped to announce a deal with Chinese investors to build a nuclear plant at Hinkley Point, Britain, in the coming days, its chief executive said on Sunday. (Compiled by Sruthi Shankar and Natalie Grover in Bengaluru)